An example of a pouch is a small bag with a drawstring used for carrying coins.
- a small bag or sack for carrying something, as in one's pocket: a leather tobacco pouch
- ⌂ a mailbag, specif. one whose opening can be locked, as for sending diplomatic dispatches
- Scot. a pocket (in clothing)
- Archaic a purse
- Anat. any pouchlike cavity or part
- marsupium (sense )
- a baglike part, as of a pelican's bill or a gopher's cheeks, used to carry food
Origin of pouchMiddle English pouche ; from Middle French poche, variant, variety of poque: see poke
- to put in a pouch
- to make into a pouch; make pouchy
- to swallow: said of fish and certain birds
- A small bag often closing with a drawstring and used especially for carrying loose items in one's pocket.
- A bag or sack used to carry mail or diplomatic dispatches.
- A leather bag or case for carrying powder or small-arms ammunition.
- A sealed plastic or foil container used for packaging food or drink.
- Something resembling a bag in shape: the pouches under one's eyes.
- Zoology A saclike structure, such as the cheek pockets of the gopher or the external abdominal pocket in which marsupials carry their young.
- Anatomy A pocketlike space in the body: the pharyngeal pouch.
- Scots A pocket.
- Archaic A small purse for coins.
verbpouched, pouch·ing, pouch·es
- To place in or as if in a pouch; pocket.
- To cause to resemble a pouch.
- To swallow. Used of certain birds or fishes.
Origin of pouchMiddle English, from Old French, of Germanic origin.
- A small bag usually closed with a drawstring.
- A pocket in which a marsupial carries its young.
- Any pocket or bag-shaped object, such as a cheek pouch.
- (slang, dated, derogatory) A protuberant belly; a paunch.
- A cyst or sac containing fluid.
- (botany) A silicle, or short pod, as of the shepherd's purse.
- A bulkhead in the hold of a vessel, to prevent grain etc. from shifting.
(third-person singular simple present pouches, present participle pouching, simple past and past participle pouched)
- To enclose within a pouch.
- To transport within a pouch, especially a diplomatic pouch.
- We pouched the encryption device to our embassy in Beijing.
- (of fowls and fish) To swallow.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster's Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
From Old Northern French pouche, borrowed from Old French poche, puche (whence French poche; compare also the Anglo-Norman variant poke), of Germanic origin: from Old Low Franconian *poka (“pouch") (compare Middle Dutch poke, Old English pocca, dialectal German Pfoch) or Frankish. Compare pocket, poke.